Brooklyn, NY - Ruling From Court in Satmar Case

Brooklyn, NY - Supporters of Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum won a huge victory in their seven-year-long brawl with followers of his brother, Aron, for control of the 120,000 Satmar Chasidim and their millions of dollars of real estate, including a matzah factory.

An appeals court panel in Brooklyn issued two rulings siding with Rabbi Zalmen's faction.
One decision was 3-1 affirming a lower court decision from 2004 that left Zalmen's side in charge of the Satmar congregation in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn by refusing to intervene in what was deemed an off-limits religious dispute.
The other wich was 4-0, overturned a decision Stewart Rosenwasser made in February as an acting state Supreme Court justice in Orange County, a decision that waded firmly into the religious dispute and declared Rabbi Aron's side the winners.

The court unanimously also invalidated a deed transfer that would have given half ownership of the cemetery in Kiryas Joel where Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum and his uncle, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, are buried to the congregation there, which is under Aaron Teitelbaum’s authority. Instead, the court left the entire control of the cemetery with the Williamsburg congregation and under Zalmen Teitelbaum’s authority.

The long-awaited decisions by the Appellate Division of Supreme Court are a stinging defeat for Aron Teitelbaum, who has led the dominant Satmar congregation in Kiryas Joel for a quarter century and now their future was been thrown into doubt.